One of the biggest and prominent trends in consumer electronics nowadays is converting regular devices into “smart” devices. More and more devices are becoming “intelligent” including simple devices such as thermostats, doors, washing machines, light bulbs, etc. In practice, an intelligent device is a mini computer that also exposes an interface to the outside world through which it is operated.
While each device is implemented in a different way there are many characteristics that are common to smart devices. For example they are always online and are expected to accept different commands. In many cases the functionality exposed to the outside world is similar to web technologies and some of the devices use plain web servers. The decision to use known technologies for smart devices is mainly driven by the fact that the development of the functionality is easy, the infrastructure is available and there are many people capable to implement them. However the downside of this decision is that the devices are vulnerable to widespread web vulnerabilities that are well known to people skilled in the art, and the devices themselves lack a security infrastructure. For example there is no antivirus or other tool available on the market for washing machines, since as of today's date nobody up until now developed or defined a standard security infrastructure for such devices.
On top of the growing array of the smart devices there is a new trend named “Smart Home”, which allows operating all smart devices from outside the house through a convenient interface. The functionality provided by a Smart Home may include:                an ability to check whether the doors and windows are closed;        receiving alarms from smart smoke detectors;        being notified of malfunctioning of smart devices or of the need for maintenance thereto.        
Smart Home systems usually see all the home devices and can operate all of them. While the functionality provided by this technology is very convenient for the consumer there are many risks associated with it. Since all the devices comprise mini computers without a security layer, it is possible to install malware on the smart device in order to inflict damage. The attacker may do, inter alfa, the following attacks:                by sending turn on/off commands frequently it is possible to break a device;        by turning on all the devices when they are not needed it is possible to inflate the energy bill of the customer;        it is possible to unlock the door;        it is possible to record all the activities at home by connecting to the home surveillance system or even by issuing a command to the camera found on the Smart TV or on the cleaning robot.        
Some attention has been given to the problems involved in operating Smart Home systems, but no suitable solution of the abovementioned problem has been provided in the art. For instance, CN 101166163B describes a system for providing access control and authentication for the Smart Home user using variety of methods. US 20070067780 A1 relates to the communication of Smart Devices that include implementation of the publish/subscribe mechanism over the protocol such as UPnP and to the security aspects of such a communication.
The article http://colindixon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/homeos-chi2011.pdf describes problems that hamper the adoptability of smart systems. One of the problems mentioned is the security, but does not propose solutions to the problem. The paper http://www.sersc.org/journals/IJSH/vol7_no2_2013/2.pdf proposes an architecture of a Smart Home environment that is built around a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for Smart Home management system. The architecture proposed includes a gateway through which smart appliances are operated. The paper also specifies that this gateway may perform various tasks related to security such as authorization and firewalling, but no specific security solutions are provided.
To date the art has failed to provide specialized IPS/IDS systems for the Smart Home environment. The cyber intruder has a large attack surface given the wide range of various devices, each of which provides him with various attack opportunities. Currently, Smart Home systems are not equipped with means for stopping malicious attacks (also known as “exploitation”) or even to detect them. It is therefore clear that there is a need to provide means and methods for blocking such exploitations and any other kind of malicious attack before they occur.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for blocking malicious software attacks against smart devices.
It is another object of the invention to provide means to operate firewall-like systems for protecting Smart Home systems.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.